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I'll either pick up "The Three Doctors," "The Twin Dilemma" or continue on with my Seven watching with "The Happiness Patrol"

Of those, The Happiness Patrol is easily the best story. The Twin Dilemma is better than most say but still pretty weak. I'd say Attack of the Cybermen would be a better place to start with the (Very awesome!) Sixth Doctor.

The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe.

I liked the 'who done it' aspect of Terror but its the only thing that really works in the serial. Everybody on the ship is a suspect in the crime until the culprit is finally revealed in part four. Unfortunately none of the suspects are well developed and the serial has several subplots that lead to nowhere like Rudge and the Morgarian's plan to take over the ship. They take the ship, the Morgarians are killed, Rudge runs away and is killed by the Vervoids. That's it, all done.

I enjoyed Foe more but I think the original ending, with the Doctor and the Valeyard plunging to their supposed doom, would've been much better. It also would've served as a better end for the Sixth Doctor than the one he gets in Time and the Rani.

The concept behind the Valeyard is interesting and I wouldn't mind it being explored further in Modern Who since Classic Who never got a chance. Since it's likely Matt Smith's tenure is almost up, we're fast approaching the time between the Doctor's 12th and 13th lives. Unfortunately I've got a feeling the Valeyard's going to be completely ignored.

I'm not too sure about Mel at the moment. So far her defining trait appears to be the ability to state the obvious.

The pacing's disastrous. Not sure about all of the story as I zoned out in many parts. The first three episodes watched ages ago and they had great effect bits but mostly very dull. Ep4 was better with what felt like very naturalistic dialogue and character interaction, vaguely interesting if literally forgettable. Eps5-6 just now, a riot with a particularly fun version of a talking computer and lots of unintentional comedy. Why save the butterfly for the last episode and even then only one?

I remember this story for two reasons:

First, it was Jo's last story, and her departure actually made sense both in terms of the story and her established character.

Secondly... it reminds me of a wild weekend in Calgary, Alberta over 25 years ago, when I was visiting some friends who were making their own Doctor Who film. They'd built a TARDIS set, had a script, a cameraman who knew what he was doing, and that was the weekend they were going to do some location filming - at an unused warehouse.

I basically tagged along as an observer, since I know nothing of filming (my background is in live theatre, working various backstage crews on musicals, Shakespeare, and dinner theatre).

As luck would have it, one of the guys was covering the windows to adjust the light, when he fell off the ladder and got a nail stuck in his backside. Naturally that meant a trip to the hospital - not only for him, but also for the cameraman who, we discovered, was apt to faint at the sight of blood. He got hustled to the hospital as well, since he'd hit his head on the concrete floor.

The "green" part of this comes in because one of the guys playing a human who was changing into some kind of green alien still had his makeup on when we got to the hospital. He insisted he couldn't go in.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I'm GREEN!" he yelled. "They might want to keep me!"

It was all kind of silly to me, since I long ago got over any nervousness at walking around in public in SF and medieval costumes. It seems normal to me, so it never occurred to me that someone else might have a problem.

The two who were hurt recovered, although the camera got broken when the guy running it fell...

Lowdarzz wrote:

The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp (Sixth Doctor).

While not Robert Holmes' best, I know he was ill while writing it and died soon after, I enjoyed The Mysterious Planet. It's actually kind of interesting, I saw a lot of The Krotons, Holmes first serial, in this one. A robot which controls a human society to provide for its needs, the robot singling out two of the humans for special tasks.

While Mindwarp was well written, I think Philip Martin's last serial, Vengeance on Varos, was probably better. Sil works better as an antagonist then a sniveling flunkie. Peri's death however was excellent. She didn't die saving the day, she just died and I applaud the writer and producer for making that decision.

Yes, I know they copped out in the end which is too bad. Having Peri marry Yrcanos seems completely out of place. I know they tried to build up some sort of relationship between them, but it wasn't that well developed.

But... it was BRIAN BLESSED! That makes up for all of it, as he was clearly much in love with his "Perpugilliam of the Brown."

Besides, that marriage made a hell of a lot more sense than Leela and Andred...

Lowdarzz wrote:

The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe.

I liked the 'who done it' aspect of Terror but its the only thing that really works in the serial. Everybody on the ship is a suspect in the crime until the culprit is finally revealed in part four. Unfortunately none of the suspects are well developed and the serial has several subplots that lead to nowhere like Rudge and the Morgarian's plan to take over the ship. They take the ship, the Morgarians are killed, Rudge runs away and is killed by the Vervoids. That's it, all done.

I enjoyed Foe more but I think the original ending, with the Doctor and the Valeyard plunging to their supposed doom, would've been much better. It also would've served as a better end for the Sixth Doctor than the one he gets in Time and the Rani.

The concept behind the Valeyard is interesting and I wouldn't mind it being explored further in Modern Who since Classic Who never got a chance. Since it's likely Matt Smith's tenure is almost up, we're fast approaching the time between the Doctor's 12th and 13th lives. Unfortunately I've got a feeling the Valeyard's going to be completely ignored.

I'm not too sure about Mel at the moment. So far her defining trait appears to be the ability to state the obvious.

Mel's main talents are pushing carrot juice and screaming. She was pretty useless as a Companion.

^^^
True, Brian Blessed is fantastic in anything he does. He was the best part of series 1 of Black Adder.

The Time Monster (Third Doctor).

While it's not a top tier story, The Time Monster was never boring. For a six parter, it kept up a good pace. This was probably due to the fact that they completely change locations and add an almost entirely new cast for parts five and six.

Going back to the Third Doctor has also made me realize how much I prefer Roger Delgado's Master to any of the others. I prefer his quiet manipulative menace, with occasional bouts of manic energy, to Anthony Ainley's moustache twirling.

Time and the Rani (Seventh Doctor).

While definately not a propitious start for the second Doctor, I know that McCoy's stories tend to get better as he settles into the role. There was too many attempts at comedy in this one and many aspects of the story were not fully explained and were left hanging when the serial ended.

Mel continued being useless. The extent of her role was to state the obvious, run around acting stupidly and to scream.

The Crusade's a good one (if unintentionally funny in places, especially if you've read certain Persian-themed fics) - Camfield's direction is great, the script is very respectful to the culture (making a good stab at correct pronunciations for the Arab characters), and Julian Glover and Jean Marsh make immediate great impressions.
One of the early masterpieces, and it's a damn crime that two of the episodes don't exist any more. (And that the CD that came with the VHS version has no linking narration for the visual bits.)

The Space Museum - somewhat dull, but that's mainly down to Jeremy Bulloch and pals being rubbish, and Richard Shaw being pretty bad. There are some good times to be had though- the first episode sets up a good mystery (also note the Doctor admitting he actually doesn't really *get* the time-wimey part of running a time machine!), and the Doctor gets to be pretty cool in places - even if one of them's off-screen! It's also fun to note that the "what should we do to avoid our future" discussion is repeated practically verbatim in about a hundred Star Trek episodes... But this is the original!

Airy-wairy spiritual trip. A very good, with the right amount of cohesion, ending to the trilogy of stories with scenes of the Black Guardian thrown at random. Refreshing non-bluntness from the very rare female writer.

the last DW we watched was The Chase- fun, occasionally embarrassing (terrible direction, bloopers, Peter Purves as Morton Dill - he's fine as Steven Taylor though, who joins as the new companion), but entertaining overall. Contains, oddly, the first direct evidence that Daleks *can* climb stairs, and the first joke referring to the fact that they can't, in consecutive episodes!

The music still sucks, though, with that tinkly piano over melodramatic episode titles.

Still, was fun, and Ian and Barbara get a great leaving scene/montage.

State of Decay, which is great despite the fact the vampires are a bit stagy at times. Quite dark and chilling in places though, and a rocket that ends up turning into a castle? Wonderful.

This was originally supposed to be done earlier, when Leela was the Companion. I don't recall why it didn't get made then, but I certainly enjoyed the version that was made.

Lonemagpie wrote:

the last DW we watched was The Chase- fun, occasionally embarrassing (terrible direction, bloopers, Peter Purves as Morton Dill - he's fine as Steven Taylor though, who joins as the new companion), but entertaining overall.

...

Still, was fun, and Ian and Barbara get a great leaving scene/montage.

Loved that last bit with Ian and Barbara. I like to think that they stayed together as a couple, or at least as Very Good Friends. Who else could possibly understand them and their undoubtedly different viewpoints after all the traveling they did and the things/people they saw? And they were missing for awhile... they'd need each other to come up with some sort of explanation.